Travel Alone

There is an article in the NY Times today about the pleasure of solo travel. Well, tomorrow I am going to NYC alone for the first time in years! Don't get me wrong. I ADORE traveling with Lee. NEW YORK AND LEE are kind of one to me. 

But, alas, Lee has lots to do here in MSP and I have lots to do in NYC, so off I go. Even my son, who lives in NY is away at a conference until Wed night. What I most love about NY is the way you can disappear in the city, be whomever you want (i.e. dress like a fool or not) and be voyeur at the same time. 

I love love love the people watching, the fashion watching, the food tasting, the museum strolling. I can't wait. And I'm feeling especially lucky to be staying with a lovely woman who had the wits to buy a loft in the Union Square area in the 1970's. I can't wait to hear the hippie stories. You can only imagine Patti Smith and what's his name hanging nearby (because they actually did live about 2 blocks away at 1 Fifth Avenue.) 

Besides I will be only 4 blocks from ABC Carpet and Home. I'm all set. Here's where I'll be staying. 
Cheers, all. Have a great week!

Hot Sandwich Filling

Hot Sandwich Filling

Not really sure what this is.

My mother is making “hot sandwich filling” for the birthday celebration, she reports in her email. Oh, and a cake. I know what a cake is. I don’t really know what “hot sandwich filling” is. If it were on a menu, I would want to ask the waiter, “What is “hot sandwich filling, exactly?”  I’m pretty sure my daughter, Isabelle, who has been a vegetarian since she was five, won’t eat it.

Knowing my parents, raised on farms in Iowa, it probably contains the meat of an animal that would have been familiar to them. Like cows, sheep, and pigs. I guess chickens were familiar, too. So maybe this filling is made of chicken. Then again, there were cans of Spam on the shelves in the pantry and you could heat that up – even easier today with a microwave. Maybe the “hot sandwich filling” is just hot Spam. I am hoping it is not made of something unfamiliar to a farmer from Iowa, like snake or monkey or things that a Chinese person might use for “hot sandwich filling.”

I think it is always nice, as a guest who is bringing something to a party, to compliment the cook’s menu. It’s hard, when you don’t know exactly what the main dish is and you don’t want to sound ignorant and have to say, “What exactly is hot sandwich filling? I’d like to bring something to compliment it.” 

So that I don’t seem rude, I won’t ask. I guess I’ll just bring a Snickers salad with apples and cool whip. Here in the upper Midwest, that seems to go with everything.

Queen of Pizza

My sister, Holly is, actually, the best cook I know. I have 2 other friends who are such close seconds that it is impossible to quantify the difference. But I'm sure Holly has an edge for me in the contest as we grew up with some familial advantage around taste and flavor - the amount of salt, fat, etc that makes for a divine dish.

So,I want to post a photo of the pizzas she made us for dinner last night at her home. The prize is the dough - which she has developed and is magnificent. She will be selling it and she's available for pizza parties! Let me know if you are interested. She's just launching the dough biz. I've run out of time to add more...but let me know if you want to know more about her dough. It is amazing! And great in any traditional oven.

Holly's pizzas from top left: 1. Chicken with onion, red pepper goat cheese and arugula.  2. Broder's homemade sausage, red sauce and purple onion with mozzarella.  3. White pizza with guanciale from Broders.
I ate, like, six pieces!

Genius

I need to get back to writing. And so I am working with a woman who is a mentor and coach and as she talked to me about the process of writing, she reminded me of this. If you didn't look at this the first time I posted this, please don't miss it if you have any interest in creating anything in your life.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=86x-u-tz0MA

From a reader.

I LOVE it when I hear from a reader. My friend, John Forsman, an amazingly talented photographer - one with whom I have happily shot many projects, is nice enough to check in on my blog and he had a very personal response to my piece on the espresso cups. So I asked if I could share it and he said I could. Just fyi - John owns a home in Italy, which explains his fascination (like mine) with subjects Italiano. Enjoy! (And thanks, John!)

His website...fyi...is www.forsmanphoto.com

I've been using French Apilco for day to day use (durable enough for children) for decades.  It began when they made Cordon Blue porcelain.  When Cordon Blue switched to a Brasilian manufacturer I got a few pieces (my ex is Brasilian), however the switch to Chinese manufacture was the end.  I began buying buying Pillivuyt then.  Also I have a lot of white English ironstone for normal use that is from 1850-1920s.  I've had to tell my kids that perhaps all this old stuff that I use (I bake in antique ironstone) isn't garage sale material.  I suspect husbands might not see the difference between a fluted but stained Sydenham bowl and an unstained mixing bowl.

     I read Under the Tuscan Sun while I was in Italy years ago.  I got a great tip in it about care of cotto floor tiles, and I coat them with linseed now after cleaning.  Another gem I read in that book was about drinking espresso.  Ed would go down to the bar in the morning for espresso and began mixing a cube of sugar into his espresso as the Cortona natives did.  Then, the espresso is drunk as a shot.  It isn't sipped.  That probably accounts for why French espresso cups seem to be more capacious than Italian cups.

I would rather have less, but better,

John

To Keep this Going...

I have to admit, I may have hit my threshold. There is little that shocks me relative to prices for fine things. But I found (online) what appears to be a gorgeous knob on the Nanz website. I am looking for something for a project I am working on - for a set of built in chests. This is an elegant project and something a little grand seemed right.

A GORGEOUS knob from Nanz.
About 2" diameter. Such a great size!

I love these knobs! So Edwardian! Aren't they amazing? 

So I called Nanz to find out the price. Well, after assigning me a salesperson and getting more information on the project (Name, location, etc, really meaning they are checking things out to see if I'm really a designer or just  an end user asking for wholesale pricing) someone emailed me - with a lovely tone in her note about the knob. It is $510 per knob. Should I want the monogram, which of course I do! it is additional.

Now, I love this knob. But even I couldn't tell a client, even a wealthy client, that I even imagine they might want to spend $510 + probably another $100 on monogramming PER KNOB. The two chests for which I need the knobs....20 of them!  20 x $600 = $12,000 for knobs for two sets of drawers. I'm really not saying it is wrong to buy it, of course! But I probably don't have a client who would see the value. I'm going to NY next week and stop in Nanz and see what they look like in person. Maybe I'll change my tune!

Threshold. That's all I have to say. But, they aren't made in China, I know that for sure!

Happiness and Morality in a Cup

So excited to see!

Lee has recently taken to drinking espresso, especially after a meal. That's easy enough when you are out to dinner, but we only had regular sized cups that we used for our daily cappuccini. It's perfectly wonderful...but sometimes you just want a straight shot of espresso. Like at 3:00 in the afternoon or after dinner.

So I did a little research and found some cups that seemed right. Got them today and couldn't be happier with them!

First, they are made in France - in a family-owned factory that has been making restaurant porcelain since the 19th Century. Why am I sooooo very happy about this? That they don't say "Made in China" on the bottom. I know I paid at least 4 x more for these cups, but I sooooo don't care. They are soooo much nicer than anything "Made in China". Super thick, stackable - just awesome. 

I am really trying to avoid cheap things. I spend my days convincing a client that the $400 per yard Fortuny or Loro Piana silk velvet is worth the expense - that it will create an experience in their lives that justifies the cost. Or the custom sofa with down cushions and horsehair stuffing instead of a FOAM  fortress?

If I schelp to you know where when it is time to buy my espresso cups, what does that say about how I value craft and quality? 

It's not an easy thing. At the point of sale, it is painful to part with the cash. We've come to want more, not less. But, I just don't want to support cheap labor, poor quality and disposable product.

Think about the next time you have $100 to spend. How will you do it?

http://www.williams-sonoma.com/products/apilco-tradition-porcelain-espresso-cups/?pkey=e%7Cespresso%2Bcup%7C6%7Cbest%7C0%7C1%7C24%7C%7C1&cm_src=PRODUCTSEARCH||NoFacet-_-NoFacet-_-Feature_Recipe_Rule-_-

Better than I thought. From Williams Sonoma - French espresso cups
Apilco - made in France by the same family since 1826

With a small kitchen and limited storage, I love how they stack!